Omya and Asia Pacific Resource International, Ltd (April) have announced the formation of a joint venture to supply all GCC requirements for April’s new uncoated woodfree paper machine in Jiangmen, Guangdong in the People’s Republic of China.
Under the new partnership, named AP-Omya Minerals (Jiangmen) Co., Ltd., Omya and April have erected a new facility for the production of Ground Calcium Carbonate (GCC) in a location adjacent to April’s new Paper Machine in Jiangmen, Xinhui in the Guangdong Province of the People’s Republic of China. The capacity of the GCC facility is 140,000 dry metric tons per year, all of which is expected to be consumed by APRIL. APRIL’s new paper machine, producing uncoated wood free paper grades 450,000 tons/year, started operation in July 2012. GCC is an essential raw material for paper manufacturing and responsible for key properties such as printability, opacity and whiteness. Omya won a competitive bid where April assessed items such as product quality, costs, technical capability and service.